Mega Man 4

Mega Man 4
Also known as: Rockman 4: Aratanaru Yabou!! (JP, translated as "Rockman 4: A New Ambition!!"), Mega Man IV (US/EU), Rockman 4 (CN) Developer: Capcom Publishers: Capcom (JP/US), Nintendo (EU), Ubisoft (CN) Platforms: NES, Windows Released in JP: December 6, 1991 Released in US: January 15, 1992 Released in EU: August 10, 1993 Released in CN: 2001 (Rockman 1-6 Collection) This game has unused enemies. This game has unused graphics. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prerelease article This game has a Data Crystal page

Mega Man 4 is the first entry in the series to feature someone other than Dr. Wily as the final boss.

...Oh wait, no, never mind.

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Prerelease Info

Palette Editor

In all versions, Game Genie code PAEAPEGE activates a palette editor, similar to the one seen in Mega Man 5. Unfortunately, it's currently unknown where this code is actually supposed to be called from.

Unused Corridor

In Toad Man's stage, if you use a walk-through-walls code or edit the stage and move to the right side of the room just before the first Escaroo (room $0F, in the stage data), there is a completely empty corridor that's two screens wide (rooms $18 and $19) and has no exits. While a number of games (including this one) house empty screens or screens filled with junk data, they're generally left unlinked in their stage. Given this game's nature of having side-areas and detours, it seems likely that the black corridor was going to be one such side area, but was discarded before release.

Unused Object/Sprite Graphics

Drill Man

This sprite block is a duplicate of a background block, located in the same sprite bank as the switch from Drill Man stage. While the background version of this block is used all over the stage, the sprite version isn't used. Furthermore, there is a variant of the switch which is also unused: the switch that is found in the stage changes a background palette to make some background areas "appear", what the unused variant does is change a sprite palette to the same values as those used by the background version of this block.

In other words, these two things go together: they had meant for a variant of the switch to make this sprite block appear.

Pharaoh Man

While the sphinx miniboss seen in early pre-release material is nowhere to be found in the final game, remnants of a revised version of the enemy remains within the game's graphic banks. There's a smaller version of the boulder that the miniboss would release, a slightly different sprite for the snake that would adorn its crown, what appears to be a newer version of the projectile the snake would've shot (in prerelease footage, the snake would shoot standard enemy bullets), and a lower jaw piece for the sphinx.

Ring Man

Found near the graphics for the minibosses is this odd ring. It bears a resemblance to the Ringring enemies that populate the rest of the stage, suggesting that this may be an early version of those enemies.

Dive Man

A sprite exists within Dive Man's graphics for his shoulders. In the final game, Mega Man's bubble graphic is erroneously used in place of this.

A robot based on a sea lion. Intended for use in Dive Man's stage, it would've tossed the bomb it carried at Mega Man and swam off.

Located near the graphics for the Moby miniboss is this odd canister sprite. Its purpose is unknown.

Skull Man

An alternate, slightly thinner version of Skull Man's buster exists within his graphics.

Cossack Citadel & Wily Castle

Unused sprites of fire exhaust for the Mothraya boss. It would've been placed under its giant jetpack tanks, explaining why it was able to stay afloat.

A sprite exists for Kalinka blinking.

It appears that Dr. Cossack was supposed to have a proper talking animation.

An alternate version of Dr. Wily's trademark eyebrow wiggling taunt, as well as a pointing and talking animation much like with Dr. Cossack. The former sprite ended up being used in Mega Man 5.

Unused Enemies

A bizarre unused telescope or plunger enemy with a flashing light in the middle. Assumedly, it would extend whenever Mega Man got close and its flashing light is its weak spot.

A wheeled turret on extended legs. It has a slight resemblance to Tank CSII, a Wily Castle boss from Mega Man 6.

Misc.

The Q, W, X and Z characters in the unique computerized font used during the game's weapon acquisition sequence go unused.

Assorted background tiles that are never loaded. They seem to be labeled "B1".

Regional Differences

Copyright Notice

US	EU	Legacy Collection

The original Japanese version begins with the Capcom Presents screen. The US and European versions on the other hand, have the copyright notice show up instead before the Capcom Presents screen. Specifically, it states "Licensed by Nintendo of America Inc." in the US versions, while it's simply "Licensed to Nintendo" in the European version. The version found in Mega Man Legacy Collection uses the same copyright notice as the US version, except the Nintendo licensing text has been removed. The remaining text however, wasn't adjusted to accommodate the change, thus leaving a large blank space. This same change was also done to the copyright screen in the Chinese release.

Intro Cutscene

International	China

The 2001 Chinese release replaced all instances of "MEGAMAN" in the intro with "ROCKMAN". Surprisingly, this change also carries over to the cutscene after the Cossack Catcher fight as well! The English names for Dr. Light, Proto Man, and the New Mega Buster are retained, however.

Title Screen

Japan	International	China

As mentioned previously, the copyright was (once again) moved to the beginning of the game's bootup like in the previous two games. Rockman 4's title screen also uses "Game Start" instead of "Press Start".

Like with the prior game, the Chinese release re-draws the "MEGA MAN" logo to read "ROCK MAN".

Cossack Catcher

In the Japanese version, the Cossack Catcher starts moving earlier.

Revisional Differences

To do: This could use a picture.

In the version found in Mega Man Anniversary Collection, which is based on the Japanese Rockman Complete Works version, the way the dialogue is shown has been noticeably changed. It now instantly shows all characters in the text, and there are some minor alterations to the in-game text for the cutscenes. In addition, more text is shown at once.

Intro

Since the NES version of its sequel, Mega Man 5, has 20XX AD instead of AD 20XX as the year shown in the intro, a similar change was made.

A slight text edit. There isn't a period/full stop at the end of the sentence, which the original had, but Mega Man's name is rendered as such with a space between the two words.

Kalinka Rescued

Another lack of a period.